National Museum of the Marine, Toulon, France

National Museum of the Marine is located in the historic centre of Toulon on Monsenergue Square. The exposition is placed in the old city arsenal (built in 1814 during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte). Central facade of the museum is decorated with impressive statues of the Atlantes created the famous master of the 17th century, Pierre Puget.

The visitors of the museum can see here the most unique collection of models and maquettes of marine vessels for different purposes in a variety of scales (starting from the 18th century to the present day), from the ancient galleys to modern aircraft carriers.

Moreover a variety of ship equipment, collection of old cannons and the first 'version' of the famous Maxim gun, the samples of the sailors’ uniforms of different years and their camp household items are kept here.

Also unique historical documents related to the activities of the port of Toulon and magnificent works of famous marine painters are among the exhibits. It is worth specially focus that the Museum of the Marine of in Toulon has in its exposition the entire 'Russian' section where you can see many genuine artifacts devoted to the Russian-French relations.

References:

info-provence.com

Museums in France

User Reviews

Richard Lewis (8 months ago)
Nice museum. Not the biggest in the world but informative

Rıza Özutku (8 months ago)
It is not a very rich museum. There is too little English information in the museum. Take a audio guide for the visit.

Charlene Elliott (9 months ago)
What a cool museum! Kids under 18 free of charge, adults 6.50€ each. Set over two floors of lots of information on the Marine and Naval history of Toulon. Very informative and the kids enjoyed listening to the free English audio guides to the stories behind the paintings, model boats/ships and buildings. Not a large museum, we spent 1.5 hours there. Toilets and gift shop at the entrance.

Steve Kleiman (12 months ago)
Well-organized, easy to follow explanation of birth, development, and modern day relevance of Toulon port. Wish there was more English. Museum has a great story to tell and wealth of artifacts & models to tell it. Top-level narrative is wonderfully simple to follow on big, sequentially numbered placards with French, English, and German. Unfortunately diving down beneath that top-level narrative one finds no translations. I’d have loved to learn more about many specific artifacts which are captioned only in French. A good audio guide is available, but it does not fill the gaps of this French-only content. Hopefully museum will fully translate these wonderful exhibits such that international visitors can fully embrace Toulon’s maritime history. VISITED: 24 November 2021

Joel Le (16 months ago)
Learning is really important and this Museum was good, learned about french history is good!

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Photo from Flickr, copyright *Checco*

Historic Site of the week

Saint-Eustache

The Church of St Eustace was built between 1532-1632. St Eustace"s is considered a masterpiece of late Gothic architecture. The church’s reputation was strong enough of the time for it to be chosen as the location for a young Louis XIV to receive communion. Mozart also chose the sanctuary as the location for his mother’s funeral. Among those baptised here as children were Richelieu, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, future Madame de Pompadour and Molière, who was also married here in the 17th century. The last rites for Anne of Austria, Turenne and Mirabeau were pronounced within its walls. Marie de Gournay is buried there.

The origins of Saint Eustache date back to 13th century. The church became a parish church in 1223, thanks to a man named Jean Alais who achieved this by taxing the baskets of fish sold nearby, as granted by King Philip Augustus. To thank such divine generosity, Alais constructed a chapel dedicated to Sainte-Agnès, a Roman martyr. The construction of the current church began in 1532, the work not being finally completed until 1637. The name of the church refers to Saint Eustace, a Roman general of the second century AD who was burned, along with his family, for converting to Christianity, and it is believed that it was the transfer of a relic of Saint Eustache from the Abbey to Saint-Denis to the Church of Saint Eustache which resulted in its naming. Jeanne Baptiste d"Albert de Luynes was baptised here.

According to tourist literature on-site, during the French Revolution the church, like most churches in Paris, was desecrated, looted, and used for a time as a barn. The church was restored after the Revolution had run its course and remains in use today. Several impressive paintings by Rubens remain in the church today. Each summer, organ concerts commemorate the premieres of Berlioz’s Te Deum and Liszt’s Christus here in 1886.

The church is an example of a Gothic structure clothed in Renaissance detail. The church is relatively short in length at 105m, but its interior is 33.45m high to the vaulting. At the main façade, the left tower has been completed in Renaissance style, while the right tower remains a stump. The front and rear aspects provide a remarkable contrast between the comparatively sober classical front and the exuberant rear, which integrates Gothic forms and organization with Classical details. The L"écoute sculpture by Henri de Miller appears outside the church, to the south. A Keith Haring sculpture stands in a chapel of the church.

The Chapel of the Virgin was built in 1640 and restored from 1801 to 1804. It was inaugurated by Pius VII on the 22nd of December, 1804 when he came to Paris for the coronation of Napoleon. The apse chapel, with a ribbed cul-de-four vault, has at its centre a sculpture of the Virgin and Child of Jean-Baptiste Pigalle that the painter Thomas Couture highlighted by three large paintings.

With 8,000 pipes, the organ is reputed to be the largest pipe organ in France, surpassing the organs of Saint Sulpice and Notre Dame de Paris. The organ originally constructed by P.-A. Ducroquet was powerful enough for the premiere of Hector Berlioz" titanic Te Deum to be performed at St-Eustache in 1855.

Do you know an ancient castle or magnificent church near you?

Why not share it with other people interested in history? You can add your own historic sites and attractions to SpottingHistory.com.

It's absolutely free, easy, and doesn't even need registration!

Upload data

National Museum of the Marine

Address

Details

More Information

Rating

Interesting Sites Nearby

User Reviews

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

House of the Dragon Filming Locations

Historic Landmarks of Sicily

Rhodes, The Island of Knights

Historic Site of the week

Saint-Eustache

Looks like you are a history fan!